Wild animal shelter

I fell in love with owls. Those cute animals with their wise large eyes watching us, while visiting the Refuge Pageau, an animal shelter for wounded wild animals.

At Easter, we made an excursion of the special kind. At the small city of Amos, about 1 1/2 h north of our town, we visited the Refuge Pageau. This non-lucrative organism gives shelter to bears, lynx, mooses, foxes, wolfs and many more hurt wild animals. Michel, an experienced hunter and trapper, decided to give up his riffle to devote all his time for the well-being of the animals. He created this “refuge” and gives back the healed animal ist freedom whenever it’s possible.

We started our tour to visit some wounded owls. That owls can turn their head up to 270 degrees – mostly because they can’t move their eyes. Just to compare: our heads can be turned only about 180 degress. We got lucky to see even a snowy-owl. They appear nearly bleach-white in color with a few flecks of black to be well-adapted for life north of the Arctic Circle. After the owls were healed, Michel and his people wanted to free them, but they returned back to the refuge.

Then we came across a Grey wolf pack. The male ‘alpha-animal’ wolf is huge… He strolled around the large fenced area and he made a “handsome” appearance. But the guide told us, that even if wolfs would grow up with humans, they are afraid of them.

A male grey wolf.

Next we saw some arctic foxes. They looked so cute with their deep thick white fur which is brown in summer and white in winter. We continued to visit porcupines and mooses.
Only male moose grow antlers, but even without, they look funny. The last weeks I was hoping to see some moose in the forest, but I wasn’t lucky. I’m happy that I got the chance to see them now.
Here are few pictures of animals at the refuge:

It was a great day outside, with animals that I have never seen before. The Refuge really sensitize about the protection and love for the wildlife. I might visit the Refuge in summertime again and already I’m curious which animals they will heal then…